Since I had Lipotrim coming out my ears and Volvic coming out of all of my other orifices, I’ve decided to take a break from the old diet for a fortnight, which means that I now have the opportunity to celebrate my thus-uncelebrated 35th birthday, and my impending doom happy engagement to the lovely T. Plus of course there’s the long, complicated process of organising my stag night, with all the associated discussions, fights, interventions, arrests, and ultimately duels at dawn. So set aside Friday week the 17th in your calendar for a few pints please. More details as we have them.

PS. 27.5 pounds so far, and really that extra half pound at the start was cos of a Johnny Fries a couple nights before I started. That’s just short of two stone, or the weight of this amount of water.

Yes, I’m using bottles of water to visualise my weight loss. But still, not bad eh? Sorry for the journally-type post, but I’m dead chuffed.

Like that Craftery fella, I’ve been known to bitch and whine about companies when I get bad service, but I have to admit that I rarely take the time to do the opposite.

Today I received service that honestly put a smile on my face though, so I’ll kick off the testimonials with Cork University Press, who gave me a free copy of the Atlas of Cork City today because the first copy I bought from them was nicked; despite the fact that it was absolutely no fault of theirs.

Thank you Mike and everyone in CUP, I really appreciate it!

(Of course I still get an opportunity to bitch and whine, about the stupid and/or lazy postal worker that left the parcel on top of the mailboxes in the lobby of my building, and about the thieving scumbag that ripped it open and stole the book out of it.)